Abdul Sattar Edhi, who founded the Edhi Foundation which is funded solely by private donations, would have been 89 today

What is the Edhi Foundation?

In 1951, he established the Edhi foundation, which is funded solely by private donations.

The foundation, which operates 24 hours a day, provides a variety of social services from homeless shelters to medical care — all free of charge — and has helped thousands of people around the world in times of need.

Most notably, the foundation operates the world’s largest volunteer ambulance network in Pakistan, with more than 2,000 staff members and 1,500 vehicles, and placed in the Guinness World Records.

If you call 115 in the South Asian nation, the Edhi Foundation will answer.

The foundation has expanded its work into other countries and offered assistance to people affected by disasters like Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Abdul Sattar Edhi, pictured meeting men at one of his charity's homes, died in July last year

Edhi was directly involved with the foundation throughout the rest of his life and his family slept in a room near the foundation's headquarters, with just a few belongings.

But his charitable empire and "family" were vast — at the time of his death, he and his wife Bilquis were registered as parents or guardians of tens of thousands of Pakistani children.

In an interview he said: “My mission is to love human beings. Each day is the best day of my life."

The Google Doodle honours Edhi with artwork showing him with his recognisable white beard and black cap, next to one of his emergency response vehicles and a family visiting a health clinic, as well as an open book.

Google says Edhi celebrated his birthday on February 28, however reports suggest he was in fact born on January 1.

Edhi died in July last year of renal failure after being offered treatment abroad - but had insisted on being treated in a government hospital at home.

He was laid to rest in the clothes he was wearing when he passed away and buried in a grave he had dug for himself several years earlier at the Edhi cemetery near Karachi.